Present-day database display systems are often required or preferred to display the same information in differing placements or orderings, to display differing amounts of information from the same database, or to drive browsers having differing display capabilities and characteristics, from the same database. These differing display attributes may each be for use by a different user, or for use by a same user, each having a varying display format, information content, or browser characteristic.
A particular deployment is in enterprise-class database display systems that often involve complicated and voluminous information relating illustratively to marketing, inventory, or to business process information needs. Each information need has a differing display requirement in terms of both the inclusion of specific data base information in the information display, and of the placement of that information on a display device. Moreover, this information may be for display on a network connected terminal, wherein the information is displayed according to any of a plurality of possible browser characteristics, such as a markup language.
Illustrative of the different user display requirements, a first user may require a display of data base fields that includes a presentation of transaction activity for a one month time period, while a second user may require a display of a similarly formatted presentation of transaction activity but for a one year period. Or a third user may require a presentation of inventory for parts “A” and “B”, while a fourth user may require a similarly formatted presentation of inventory but for parts “A”, “B”, and additionally part “C”. Or a fifth user may require a first display placement (or ordering) of a set of information, while a sixth user may require a second differing display placement of the same set of information, for instance an information display requiring, because of language of cultural differences, a person's name to be in a Surname-Given Name placement in one display presentation, and the same name information but in a Given Name Surname placement in another display presentation. Or a seventh user may display the information for processing by a browser that has a characteristic that includes supporting framing, while an eighth user may display the information for processing by a browser that has a differing characteristic not supporting framing.
Conventional database display systems and methods include display templates that define the specific database information to be displayed, and a placement of the information for a specific browser characteristics. However, these templates do not respond to dynamic user requests for a display of the same information in differing formats, differing amounts of information in a same format, or information appropriate for a differing browser display characteristic; and do not permit the same template to define a plural number of displays having the same information in differing formats, differing amounts of information in a same format, or information appropriate for a plural number of browser display characteristics.
Conventional database display systems and methods separately configure each display for each separate set of display attributes, resulting in alternatively a preferred or even required display not being available, or both a development and/or a maintenance time expenditure, for a changed information display no matter how small the change, compared to the nominal information display.
There is a need for a display system and method to generate views based on the same information in differing formats, differing amounts of information in a same format, and information appropriate for differing browsers.
There is a need for a database display system and method that both dynamically responds to a user request for a modified information display that portrays information according to differing display attributes, and configures a display according to the differing display attributes from the information data base.
There is a need that a same display template support each of these differing display attributes and user requests, so that the database system does not need a large number of separate templates to display fundamentally related display information resulting in having only one configuration to build and to maintain.